Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative, which has more than 120,000 members in Eastern Washington, says it plans to move its South Hill clinic later this year to the Regal Place professional building thats rising on the west side of Regal Street just north of Thurston Avenue.


Group Health says that under its 10-year lease agreement with Spokane developer Terry Tombari, who owns Regal Place, it will occupy 9,200 square feet of floor space on the ground level of the two-story, 36,000-square-foot building. Construction of the shell of that building, where Tomlinson Black South Inc. plans to lease 12,000 square feet of space on the second floor, is expected to wrap up soon, says Ray Summers, spokesman for Group Health.


Last June, Group Health agreed to lease 8,500 square feet of floor space in a building that Dr. John Sonneland, of Spokane, is building at 2204 E. 29th, in the Quail Run Professional campus that Sonneland owns. Then, last fall, Group Health canceled its lease agreement due to disputes about details related to the design of the building and features of the site.


Group Health plans to start making tenant improvements to its new space in early August, and expects to open the clinic there in late fall, Summers says. NAC/Architecture, of Spokane, is designing the project, and a contractor hasnt been selected yet, he says. Also, he says, a cost estimate for the tenant improvements isnt available to release yet.


Group Health currently operates its South Hill clinic in a roughly 4,200-square-foot leased space at 3104 S. Regal, less than a mile north of Regal Place. Group Health has said it wants newer space that includes more parking for patients.


Four doctors and a physicians assistant, as well as 20 support staff employees, will move from Group Healths current South Hill location to the space in Regal Place, Summers says.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.